Only Her

“What do you think you can do Tag?”

“I have my ways Luka,” he told him. “My Dad’s stock makes us majority owner at the bank where Skylar’s mortgage is. I’ll call in her loans on the ranch. I’ll slowly ruin her the way her daughter’s unfounded accusation is coming down on my head.”

“No problem Tag. I’ll pay off her loans tomorrow when the bank opens.”

Tag sputtered then he regained his composure sure of his position. “She owes about three hundred fifty thousand on the ranch Luka.”

He smiled at Isaac, “He didn’t hear me did he?” He asked his friend.

“Apparently not,” Isaac replied. He crossed his arms over his chest and he waited for Luka to calmly reply. They had both experienced the obnoxious attitude of the Richardson family over the years. Isaac was enjoying this as much as Luka was.

“I’ll pay off her loans tomorrow just like I paid off Momma’s loans last year even when she didn’t want me to,” he told Tag. “What else you got?”

“I have friends Luka. Your brothers need jobs.”

He shook his head. “I could support my brothers for the remainder of their lives,” he responded. “You got anything else because I really want to get Skylar home.”

He started to walk away. “She humiliated me. I was arrested in front of my mother. Led off like a common criminal. I received a call from a member of the town council suggesting I should step down in the wake of the scandal. It wasn’t good for the town’s image that the Mayor had been arrested.”

Luka looked over his shoulder. “Then maybe you should step down,” he replied feeling a calmness he hoped he could maintain.

He heard Tag shouting. He chose to ignore him. “I’ll find a way Luka. I’ll ruin her.”

He was in his Escalade when he saw the other officers arriving even the chief came. Three cars stopped in front of the hospital. All of the officers got out and were talking with Tag. He was furious.

Luka backed out of his spot and turned towards the front of the hospital. He saw Skylar sitting in a wheelchair waiting on him. Her head was turned towards Tag and the officers. She was worried.

Parking the truck along the curb, Luka got out. The officers had created a barrier between them and Tag. That couldn’t shut him up though. He was shouting things Luka would prefer that Skylar didn’t have to hear. He went to her side and opened the truck’s door.

Then he walked to the entrance and stepped inside. Luka scooped Skylar out of the chair. Her nurse looked at him with shock. “Faster this way to avoid that,” he nodded over his shoulder.

She glanced around him and nodded. “Not exactly hospital regulations but I think I can bend rules for this.”

“Thanks.”

Skylar laid her head against his shoulder. “Hurry up. Let’s get this over with,” she whispered.

He shielded her as best he could as he walked fast to the truck. He knew that she heard every word that Tag shouted before he got her in his vehicle. Then he shut the door. He glanced over his shoulder and the Chief nodded at him. They would be preventing Tag from leaving to give him a head start home.

He jogged around the front and climbed inside. Soon, they were heading to the ranch.

“What the hell was that about?” She asked.

“He says he’ll call in your loans on the ranch. Revenge. A member of the council thinks he should step down because of the scandal of his arrest.”

“Shit.”

“Skylar, I told him I was paying off the loans tomorrow. I can and knowing your pride,” he said when she started to protest, “you can pay me what you were paying the bank.”

She was in shock. “I keep forgetting that you can do those things.”

“He didn’t know that I could do those things.”

She laughed. “What is wrong with him?” She was shaking her head then she leaned against the window.

“Ego,” Luka explained. “He’s always had a big ego.”

She glanced over at Luka. “Did he think that acting like a fool in front of the hospital made him look any better?” She asked.